Review of The Body Finder by Kimberly Derling

The Body Finder is a novel about a teenaged girl named Violet Ambrose who has special powers that helps her locate the bodies of anything that has been murdered.  At first Violet is able to locate the bodies of animals but when she is eight years old she finds the body of a young girl who has been murdered; this event sets off her ability to find murdered people as well.  Violet is now sixteen when the story starts and she has developed a crush on her best friend, Jay who has also captured the attention of all the girls in school, including Lissie,  the most popular girl in school.  Violet feels conflicted because Jay is her best friend.  She begins to feel self-conscious and insecure around him because of all the attention he's getting from other girls.

During the last party of the summer season Violet finds the body of a missing girl, soon other girls from her community turn up dead after being reported missing.  Violet decides to use her special powers to find the killer; she's discovers that she can only only find bodies by hearing their "echoes" (visual or auditory clues that each body makes that call her to find them) but she also discovers that these echoes leave "imprints" clues that reveal who has committed the murder.

As Violet finds herself falling for Jay, she also decides to put herself in danger in order to find out who is responsible for the killings.  The book has lots of suspense and romance.  Derling is able to really build up the tension not only in the romance subplot but as Violet pursues the killer.  Great book!